To Dance
by sparxxa
Summary: *Spoilers for Journey* Mike said that he'd been afraid to dance outside his room and Matt knew that he was the one to blame for that. Matt/Mike slash.


Written as a response to a prompt in the glee_angst_meme over at live journal from anonymous:

_Matt: In the beginning of this year I was just another football player_  
_Mike: I was afraid to dance outside my room_

_So yeah something with Matt wanting to just be normal and being physically/verbally abusive to Mike for not trying to fit in as much as he is. Mike/Kurt, Mike/Finn if it doesn't end in Mitt._

Disclaimer: Not mine and there is still an hour and 15mins before I actually get to see the finale.

Warning: In case it hasn't registered, this is **slash**, this is Matt/Mike. Thank you.

* * *

It started when Mike had wanted to enter a school talent competition with his dancing.

They'd been dancing in Mike's room for years but this was the first time Mike had wanted to show other people. They'd just joined the football team and were doing a good job of blending into the popular crowd, drawing no attention to themselves, hiding right out in the open...if Mike got up and danced in front of people that would be the end of all that. All the hard work he had been putting in to keeping them both safe through high school would be for nothing.

It didn't take much that first time to dissuade Mike, just a light shove and a comment about not being so stupid, was all it took. They still went to the talent competition, sitting at the back with the rest of the team listening to Puck and Azimo heckle those students foolish enough to enter; nothing more was said on the whole thing.

Time went on and every now and then Mike would make some sort of mention of showing people their dancing and each time he shot it down in flames. Sometimes all was needed was a sharp comment or two, other times a shove or a light slap to the back of Mike's head were needed, and sometimes he had to resort to threats to keep Mike in line. The worst threat he probably made was that if the team found out he wouldn't be there to help Mike out, which was complete and utter bull because the whole point of making the threats was to keep Mike safe from the team, but he still made sure that Mike believed him.

When they started dating that was just something else he could use in his arsenal to keep Mike from getting them both into trouble.

"_If the team find out they'll either kill us both outright or they'll make sure you can never dance again. Do you really want that?" _

He tried to ignore the way Mike's smile was becoming more and more forced, the bounce in his step a complete charade, but it wasn't easy. He knew it was wrong of him to do those things but he cared so much about Mike and it just made him angry that Mike didn't seem to get that all he was doing was trying to do was protect him...though he did wonder sometimes if the person Mike really needed protecting from was himself.

Then Mr Schuester resurrected the Glee club and he knew he would have to fight even harder to keep Mike in line. It did hurt though to see Mike act so uncertain and clueless while they were learning that 'Single ladies' dance from Kurt Hummel when he knew that Mike could dance ten times better than Hummel could ever dream of doing.

Puck asking them to join the Glee club with him though changed everything. Anyone with any shred of self-preservation knew that if Puck asked you to do something you should take it as an order and not a request. So they joined the club and faded into the background there too, stumbling through the choreography like everyone else...until the Vitamin D incident.

When Mike jumped off the stage and started pulling some of his best moves he had to force himself to concentrate on getting to the end of the song; but not because he wanted to reign Mike in this time but because watching Mike dance was just mind-blowing. Mike was incredible and that smile was back on his face and he felt like such an idiot for ever telling Mike not to dance. Everyone loved it and suddenly they were both getting praise for their dance moves and instead of just fading into the background they were actually finding a place for themselves within the Glee club. That night he tried to put across through every kiss that Mike had his full permission to go out there and dance the way he'd always wanted to: with everyone watching.

He didn't say sorry though because at the time he had been right, the team would have slaughtered them and all he'd been doing was following through on the promise he'd made to himself in the first week of being friends with Mike: that he would do whatever it took not lot let anyone ever hurt Mike; and he always kept his promises.

Nothing more was said on the matter and as the weeks went on he barely even remembered that they'd ever kept their dancing quiet. He probably would have forgotten completely as they were swept along with the craziness of New Directions until all that stuff went down over Regionals and suddenly Glee was at an end and they were all telling Mr Schue how being in New Directions had changed them and Mike said something that sent a knife of guilt straight into his heart.

"_I was afraid to dance outside of my room."_

He knew without any doubt at all that that was down to him. All those threats, all those attempts to keep Mike safe and all he'd been doing was dragging down the most important person in his life.

He had to fix things and he had to fix them fast.

* * *

They were supposed to be going out to celebrate Glee club being given its reprieve with everyone else but he told Santana that they would catch up and kept Mike back in the choir room as everyone left, barely noticing they weren't there; as usual. He waited until he was sure everyone had gone and wasn't coming back before turning to look at Mike who was watching him with confused frown on his face.

"What's wrong?"

He sighed. "Mike I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"What you said earlier about being scared to dance outside your room, it was because of me wasn't it?"

"Matt-"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for all those times I pressured you into keeping everything quiet so we could fit in better, for that time I told you that if the team found out I wouldn't help you and everything else I did to scare you into keeping your dancing quiet; I shouldn't have. I'm sorry, I was so wrong. You're incredible Mike and all the good things we have in our lives- Glee, the others- they're all down to you...I wish I'd never stopped you from doing all this before. I'm just...I'm really sorry Mike."

Mike stared at him for a moment and he hoped to God that Mike wasn't remembering all of the things he'd done, but then he just smiled. "It's Ok Matt..." his smile then turned slightly mischievous "Now, about that other thing...?"

It was his turn to frown. "No. No way. We're still in Lima and the team will most definitely kill us for _that_."

Mike smirked. "I know. A guy can dream though."

He smirked back. "Put up with me a little longer, till we graduate, and then I'll make that dream come true."

"I think I can manage that."

"Good." He took another quick glance around. "I love you."

Mike smiled. "Love you too."

"Let's get out of here. The others'll be waiting."

"Race?"

"Mike-hey!" he yelled as Mike suddenly sprinted off. "Cheater!"

Mike's laughter echoed back down the corridor to him as he took off after his boyfriend. Things weren't perfect but he made another promise to himself that day: to make sure that _he_ would never be the one to take Mike's smile away again; and that was a promise he definitely intended to keep.


End file.
